The Keeper

The Sovereign of Death and Decay
True Name: Kol Turrant (preserved in the liturgy of the Three Faces of Coin)
Son of Olladra and Onatar; twin of Kol Korran
Portfolio: Death, decay, greed, hunger, time
Favoured Weapon: Scythe
Symbol: Khyber dragonshard in the shape of a fang

"Never flaunt good fortune. Avoid arrogance and pride. Those who crow too loudly may catch the jealous eye of the Keeper." — Asta Ollen of the Restful Watch

Of all the gods of the Nine-and-Six, the Keeper is the one whose shadow falls across every life in Khorvaire, whether his name is spoken in devotion or muttered in dread at a graveside. He is the hunger in the dark, clutching at anyone who strays too far from the light. He alone among the divine is said to be able to waylay the soul on its journey to Dolurrh — and no soul, once snared, can escape his chill embrace.

The Keeper is the son of Olladra and Onatar, and the twin of Kol Korran. Where Kol Korran is the patron of honest trade and circulating wealth, the Keeper is his dark mirror — governing avarice, gluttony, and the hoarding of things that should move freely. The two are the flip sides of the same coin: commerce as gift, and commerce as hunger. Kol Korran taught mortals to build wealth together; the Keeper teaches them to clutch it until their knuckles go white and their neighbours go hungry.

Under the Pyrinean Creed, the Keeper plays two very different roles. He is the Stealer of Souls — the shadow at every funeral, the reason grave goods are offered, the cold intelligence that must be appeased or distracted when the dead pass on. And he is the Lord of the Hoard — the patron of avarice and criminal cunning, always ready to make a deal, so long as the deal favours him. Both faces belong to the same god. Death is simply the tool he uses to add souls to what he already possesses.

"What is it you desire? Fine clothes? A grand mansion? Caskets of coins and jewels? Good for you. If these things were bad, they wouldn't exist; and if they're good, what's wrong with wanting them? The Keeper teaches that you should have all the things you desire — you just have to be willing to pay for them, whether with gold, sweat, or blood. So let's talk about what you desire... and what you're willing to pay for it." — Copper Tom, Talon of the Keeper

Portfolio and Domains

Greed and the Hoard. The Keeper governs not wealth as Kol Korran understands it, but wealth as possession for its own sake — coin hoarded rather than circulated, power held purely to deny it to others. He is the patron of those who put personal gain above all else: swindlers, criminal fixers, and anyone willing to acknowledge their own greed rather than dress it up as something nobler. A rogue who calls on Olladra sees herself as the hero of the story; one who calls on the Keeper has no compunctions about being the villain. Many members of the Boromar Clan offer prayers to the Keeper — not through an organised shrine, but as a personal devotion. A swindler especially skilled at separating people from their riches may be said to be blessed by the Keeper, just as a skilled blacksmith is thought favoured by Onatar; such a scoundrel likely doesn't have the trappings of a priest, but others may still ask for — and pay for — their blessing.

Death and Souls. Pyrinean teachings encourage humility and thrift. Flaunting wealth or talent draws the Keeper's attention, and once his eye is upon you, misfortune is sure to follow. He may take only your flaunted wealth — or he may decide he wants you, and even the mightiest hero can be laid low by disease or ill fortune when the Keeper reaches for them. He snatches souls before they can reach Dolurrh and adds them to his endless hoard, where he can toy with and torment them until the end of time. If the Sovereign view is correct — that souls passing through Dolurrh ascend to the Sovereigns — then a soul snatched by the Keeper is cheated of paradise. This is why Vassals practice deliberate humility, and why funerals require careful grave goods and sacrifice to distract him.

Bargains and Deals. The Keeper is known for his willingness to make deals, and this distinguishes him meaningfully from gods of pure destruction. His bargains deliver exactly what they appear to deliver — unlike the gifts of the Traveler, which always have unexpected consequences, the Keeper's goods are genuine. But his bargains are always slanted in his favour, and whatever you receive, you will give up something of greater value.

Bargains are negotiated through Talons — intermediaries who make deals on the Keeper's behalf. The terms are often abstract and driven by faith: an entertainer could exchange ten years of life for fame, but there is no way to know if the subsequent fame is the result of the bargain, nor when the entertainer might suddenly die. The Keeper can grant wealth, magic items, the powers of a warlock, skills, or knowledge — drawing on the vast reserve of souls in his hoard, he can imbue a petitioner with the talent of a long-dead musician, warrior, or scholar. The soul being used in this way is said to be entirely aware of what is happening and entirely unable to act — bound helplessly to the beneficiary, forced to watch as the bargainer uses their knowledge. Pyrinean priests note grimly that there is a reason people are not encouraged to make these deals. Crucially, the Keeper can only grant skills or knowledge that some mortal once possessed — he cannot offer secrets no mortal has discovered. This is the critical difference between the Keeper and the Shadow.

Iconography and Symbols

The Keeper's holy symbol is a Khyber dragonshard in the shape of a fang. His associated colour in Dark Six iconography is grey. Keeper's fang is also the name of a weapon enchantment that prevents the resurrection of those slain by it — the soul never reaches Dolurrh, going directly to the Keeper's hoard instead. These are among the most feared artefacts in Eberron.

Worship and Practice

Priest training. Servants of the Keeper must have a working knowledge of life and death. Disturbingly, many were once healers — people who spent years working to hold death back, and then, at some point, stopped. The transition from healer to Keeper's priest is rarely sudden; it tends to arrive through accumulating loss, disillusionment, or the slow recognition that death wins every negotiation eventually. Keeper priests also often function as criminal fixers — neutral-party intermediaries who witness deals, hold funds, and apply pressure. Smugglers and guild artisans alike cultivate relationships with someone who keeps secrets and knows the price of everything.

Keeper's Hands are practitioners who pursue necromancy as an earned gift from the Keeper — Death clerics, Undead warlocks, Oathbreaker paladins. They see necromancy as the Keeper temporarily releasing a spirit from his hoard for service, and consider it the necromancer's right to compel the dead. A Keeper's Hand doesn't see any of this as evil — life and death are business transactions, and a Hand is a merchant who expects to profit from them. Near city centres, a Keeper's Hand may be involved with smuggling or managing criminal enterprises alongside their religious duties.

Rites. Sacrifices to the Keeper almost always require ending life in his name. The scale varies: breaking a rabbit's neck at one end, the beheading of sentient creatures at the other. These are not ceremonies of celebration or catharsis — they are transactions. The Keeper does not inspire ecstasy; he inspires careful, considered offers.

Shrines are built of stone — many underground, in tombs, or both. Personal shrines often include a decorated skull. The Keeper's temples do not advertise themselves; they are built into funerary spaces, hidden behind undertaker's workshops, or tucked beneath the crypts they nominally serve. Stone, shadow, and silence are the dominant atmosphere.

The Many Faces of the Keeper

The Pyrinean Creed. The Keeper is less worshipped than avoided. His name is invoked at funerals, where grave goods are offered to distract his attention. For a simple person with few achievements, a single coin may suffice; for a remarkable one, considerably more is required. Throughout Karrnath's history, some particularly religious nobles have been buried with extravagant riches, their tombs protected by traps and wards. This is not devotion — it is practical appeasement.

The Restful Watch occupies an unusual position between the Host and the Keeper. Its priests specialise in embalming, funerals, and cemeteries. Their doctrine holds that Aureon deliberately has the Keeper snatch certain heroes' souls before they reach Dolurrh — preserving them for a future apocalyptic conflict. The Watch presents itself as servants of Aureon first, but understands the Keeper thoroughly. For the full treatment, see [Sovereign Cosmology and the Afterlife].

Keeper's Fangs are assassins who operate in his name. In the ancient Sarlonan nation of Pyrine, they sold death in exchange for gold. One order still follows these traditions in the Five Nations, quietly enough that House Thuranni does not consider them a serious competitor. Most modern Fangs have an entirely personal relationship with the Keeper — they act on visions, hoping for reward. When they kill someone the Keeper has marked, the soul never reaches Dolurrh.

The Three Faces of Coin — honouring Kol Korran, Onatar, and Kol Turrant (the Keeper) — is a mystery cult operating in major cities, founded on the premise that honest trade and criminal enterprise are not enemies but different tools. Onatar guides those who create the goods people desire; Kol Korran inspires those who trade in the light; Kol Turrant guides those who work in the shadows. The cult functions as neutral ground where guild artisans and criminals can reach agreements. Members are called Coins; those blessed by Kol Turrant are called Pennyroyals — smugglers, fences, and fixers who dodge the law to get people what they desire. The Aurum often recruits from their ranks. The Three Faces of Coin is one of the only sects openly willing to sell the spells of its divine spellcasters — spells, as they see it, are commodities.

The Cazhaak Creed understands the Keeper as the Guardian of Gates (or the Opener) — not a thief of souls but a judge. He ferries souls to the afterlife appropriate to their conduct: paradise for the godsfearing, bleakness for the faithless. His vote carries the most weight of any god's. His priests in Droaam perform funerary rites that vary by species and also serve as healers, since disease and infection are his tools that a priest can remove — for a price.

The Keeper, the Blood of Vol, and Katashka. On the surface, all three are associated with death and necromancy. The uninformed often assume their cults would be allies, but in practice they are very different. The Blood of Vol fights against death — Seekers despise the Keeper, believing all Sovereigns are cruel beings who torment mortals. Katashka the Gatekeeper thrives on mortal fear of death and the undead, revelling in terror and cruelty. Keeper cultists have no love for either — the Keeper's signature move is stealing souls, not animating corpses, and priests who honour him as the Lord of the Hoard may not use necromancy at all.

His True Name

Before the Schism, the Keeper had a name: Kol Turrant. He walked beside his brother Kol Korran — the twinned gods of commerce's two faces. The name survives in the liturgy of the Three Faces of Coin and in scattered esoteric texts. Unlike Shurkaan or Szorawai, Kol Turrant has the particular quality of sounding almost like his brother's name — a reminder, for those who know it, that the two gods were once understood as inseparable.

The Keeper in the Modern Age

In the aftermath of the Last War, the Keeper's influence has expanded through grief as much as greed. Mass death on the scale of a century of war leaves behind enormous numbers of people desperate to believe their loved ones were taken for a reason — that the Keeper holds them rather than that they are simply gone. Keeper cultists have been present at the edges of every major battlefield since the war began, offering comfort, bargains, and the suggestion that death need not be permanent if the price is right.

Populations traumatised by loss, elites hoarding wealth against instability, and necromantic movements promising preservation against oblivion have all swelled his congregations. Some cult leaders claim the Keeper offers safety in a dying world. Mainstream faiths counter that the Keeper's safety is a cell — that what he holds, he torments, and that mortals bargaining with him are trading a clean death for something considerably worse.

"Every will contested in the Sharn courts has a Keeper's priest somewhere in the paperwork. Not worshipping him — just knowing where the bodies are." — Attributed to Advocate Prina ir'Salesh, Sharn Seventh Tower Court

Common Sayings and Invocations

"Those who crow too loudly may catch the jealous eye of the Keeper."

"Pay the grave goods. Don't be proud about it."

"The Keeper's deal is always fair — to the Keeper."

"Nothing held forever. But he'll try."